2011 Maison Joseph Drouhin Vosne-Romanée Les Petits-Monts 1er Cru

(13.3% following modest chaptalization): Good bright medium red-ruby. Cassis, blackberry, licorice, minerals, fresh herbs and bitter chocolate on the nose, lifted by a floral topnote. At once dense and juicy, with lovely inner-mouth tension and energy to its intense dark fruit flavors. Savory, penetrating wine with a firm tannic backbone and resounding finishing fruit. The crop level was around 30 hectoliters per hectare and the vines were picked on September 6, according to Drouhin.

Author: Stephen Tanzer

Issue: January/February 2013

This is even spicier than the Amoureuses with really lovely black cherry and floral scents that give way to rich, intense and extract-rich medium weight flavors that possess fine delineation and an abundance of minerality. There is a distinct sense of restraint to the moderately austere, highly complex and lingering finish. Good stuff and this too will require all of a decade in the cellar to strut all its stuff.

Author: Allen Meadows